While
Senator John McCain reels from an
abysmal showing in the straw poll taken at the Southern Republican
Leadership Conference, Marriage Movement leaders are celebrating a
seminal victory.

Dr.
Mark Klein, an affable retired 65-year-old doctor from California
who has no political background but plenty of pro-marriage ideas,
did astonishingly well. The wrestling match at the SRLC was surprisingly
ungentlemanly for cohorts supposedly belonging to the same party.

Senator
McCain (who apparently did not want Senator Frist to do well in his
home state) had a large number of folks in official-looking red shirts
handing out stickers encouraging everyone to write in President Bush
in the presidential straw poll, to “support the troops.” When asked,
one of the individuals handing out the stickers said he was working
for McCain.

I
bumped into the McCain entourage in the lobby of the Peabody. When
asked about the strange campaign, one of his close aides said that
McCain didn’t have anything to do with it, suggested that Mitt Romney
was the culprit, and dove into the elevator as quickly as possible.
Having had conversations with many Romney supporters, who appeared
to be running a clean operation, this appears and incredible assertion.
Case closed.

McCain
would have done better if he simply asked delegates to vote for him.
Moral: when on a crowded elevator, 'tis far better to ask for a piece
of gum than to yank it out of somebody else’s mouth. In case McCain
hasn’t noticed, the elections were over in 2004. President Bush will
not be running for anything other than perhaps a tangy cheese enchilada
platter in 2008.

While
large elephants were battling at a very high level making the maximum
amount of noise possible, Marriage Movement delegates from many father’s
rights and pro-family groups, working on behalf of the Dr. Klein Exploratory
Committee, were busily rounding up real write-in votes.

The
Klein delegation (of which I am a member) was the largest at the conference.
Delegates from many Midwest and southern states from organizations
such as ACFC, Fathers
4 Justice, Men’s
Custody Shelter Network, FACE,
the ACFC Missouri Coalition, and many others attended. Krights Radio
covered the event live.

A
3% share, garnered in just two short days of political existence,
won’t take the presidential nomination. But it is already enough to
decide who the winner will be in the next presidential race. In a
day where divorce and anti-family government affects at least three
out of four families negatively, it is clear that the marriage movement
can and will constitute a very large block of votes spanning all conventional
voting groups by 2008.

This
is truly a seminal moment for fatherhood and the legitimate marriage
movement. For the first time in our history, we have secured a seat
in national politics.

The
success was no accident: Many Republicans know that the party is in
trouble, particularly on social policy, and are eager to hear from
anyone who has sensible answers. Most Republicans are aware that social
data has not improved since 1994. They know something must be done,
but are not quite sure what that might be. Klein's legitimate marriage
movement has the answers, developed over many years of study and research.

In
1996, I predicted that welfare reform would not improve anything.
Renaming welfare, and instead calling it child support, is obviously
not a substantive change that predicts improved marriage rates or
lower divorce or “shacking up” rates. A decade later, families are
still in deep trouble, and now Democrats are gearing up to blame all
the related problems on Republicans. Republicans have two years to
get in front of social issues, after which they will find Democrats
asserting "moral superiority."

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The
legitimate marriage movement is here to stay. Republicans I spoke
with at the conference are most displeased that Congress failed to
reign in federal programs that fund scurrilous abortion of the American
family on a massive scale. They are quite aware that fresh blood is
needed at the heart of conservative social policy.

The
big question is this: Is the GOP ready to make the positive changes
necessary to assure a decisive victory in 2008?